Flavored-nicotine vape products back on the shelves at Corktown Smoke Shop following an injunction stopped the state's ban on the products.

Flavored-nicotine vape products are back on shelves across retail stores in Michigan — for now.

A Michigan Court of Appeals judge issued a preliminary injunction last Tuesday, barring the state from enforcing its ban on the products.

It's a blow to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who announced the first-of-its-kind ban last month. Whitmer ordered the 180-day initial ban, effective on Oct. 2, in the wake of a nationwide outbreak of lung illnesses that has caused more than 500 hospitalizations and seven confirmed deaths as of Thursday. Use of the devices and the candy and fruit flavors they feature has also become an epidemic among teenagers.

Nathan Esquivel, owner of the Corktown Smoke Shop in Detroit, said the company brought the products back out of storage after the ruling.

"We just boxed them up and put them in back until we could figure out what to do with them," Esquivel said. "Now they are back out. It only took two weeks."

Nicotine vape sales account for only about 15 percent of Esquivel's sales. He said many of his customers switched from the flavored-nicotine vape juice to the tobacco-flavored begrudgingly.

Jason Canvasser, partner at law firm Clark Hill PLLC, has advised his clients, mostly grocery and convenience store chains, to reorder the products again. To comply with the ban, his clients had either returned the vape products to the distributor or shipped them to stores in other states.

But Canvasser warns that while the injunction allows the sales again, it's not a permanent solution. Whitmer has vowed to appeal the case to the Michigan Supreme Court.

"Even though there are sales, it could be very short-lived," Canvasser said. "I think it's a pretty important issue, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Supreme Court takes it up on an expedited basis and we hear something from them as soon as a few weeks."

Until then, though, retail outlets will likely push hard on sales.

"I imagine the smaller retailers will go full bore and try to sell as many as they can for as long as they can," Canvasser said.

Esquivel understands the opportunity may be temporary.

"It's all unknown," he said. "We're still doing a buy-one-get-one free on the juices and 25 percent off the devices because there's no certainty yet."

The state's ban was met with instant opposition from vape retailers and organizations that stand against Whitmer's use of executive power to skirt the administrative rule-making process.

Retailers that have opened hundreds of dedicated vape stores across the state say the ban amounts to putting them out of business.

The injunction from Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens comes after a lower court ruled the lawsuit failed to establish that the ban would create irreparable harm to the businesses and that an emergency order was not necessary.

Stephens, however, concurred with the assessment from plaintiffs Marc Silas and his Houghton-based vape store 906 Vapor LLC and Ann Arbor-based e-cigarette maker A Clean Cigarette Corp. that they will go out of business under the ban.

A Clean Cigarette has already shuttered one retail location with plans to close four more due to the ban, the company said in testimony. The company also has $2 million in inventory it cannot legally sell in the state of Michigan, according to court records.

"In essence, this rule will destroy plaintiff A Clean Cigarette's business as it currently exists as well as any branding or goodwill associated therewith," according to summarized testimony in the court order.

The judge also agreed with the plaintiffs that Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency ruling leading to the vape ban when no emergency was present.

"The plaintiffs have convinced the court that defendants' proffered reasons for the emergency declaration have fallen short," the court order said.

That legal challenge is supported by a coalition of small businesses and business associations called Defend MI Rights Coalition, which includes the Small Business Association of Michigan. The group's platform is the ban violates proper legislative process.

"We are pleased today that the court saw the ban of flavored vaping products for what it truly is: an overreach of government into the lives of adults," the group said in a statement Tuesday. "We agree with Judge Stephens, the rules are invalid, and we are thankful that she saw the truth. We are ready to work through the normal legislative process to arrive at a balanced solution that protects the rights of adults to use vaping products as an alternative to combustible cigarettes and at the same time get these products out of the children's hands."